202 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[Oct. 4, 1888. 



lature in enacting it, that the riparian proprietors of 

 ponds not more than twenty acres in extent, and the 

 proprietors of ponds created by artificial flowage, shall 

 have exclusive control of the fisheries therein existing, 

 and that in great ponds which in their natural condition 

 exceed twenty acres in extent, but which may have been 

 increased by artificial flowage, the owners of the land 

 covered by such increased or artificial flowage have no 

 control of the fisheries existing in such pond. Such 

 ponds are public unless specially granted by law or 

 leased; and. if leased, the lessee has the exclusive right 

 to the fishery therein during the continuance of the 

 lease." 



The common law rule that the right of fishing in tidal 

 waters depended upon the ownership of the soil, has been 

 changed in Massachusetts. Judge Gray, now a Justice 

 of the Supreme Court, ruled as follows: "The right of 

 fishing in the sea or rivers in any town of this Common- 

 wealth, either for swimming fish or for shell fish, is a 

 public right, which belongs to all the inhabitants of the 

 town, unless restricted by acts of the Legislature or of 

 the town, inconsistent therewith or by prescription: and 

 a grant by the Legislature to a town of the title in the 

 bed of a river, or in flats covered by tide waters within its 

 limits, does net convey by implication the right of fishing 

 to the town as its own property: for the right of fishing, 

 not being an incident to the right of property in the soil, 

 but a public right to take the fish, which, whether mov- 

 ing in the water or imbedded in the mud covered by it, 

 depend upon the water for their nourishment and exist- 

 ence, is unaffected by the question whether the title in 

 the land under the water is in the commonwealth, in the 

 town or in private persons." 



The following statute protects cultivated tidal streams; 

 The owner of an unnavigable tidal stream where the 

 same empties into salt water and in which fishes are law- 

 fully cultivated or maintained, shall have the control of 

 the fishing thereof within his own premises, and also be- 

 yond and around the mouth of the stream so far as the 

 tide ebbs, provided it does not ebb more than eighty rods. 

 Any one who fishes within these limits will be subject to 

 fine and forfeiture of his boat and fishing apparatus. 



No stream is navigable within the meaning of this 

 statute, above the point where, on the average through- 

 out the year, it has a channel less than forty feet wide 

 and four feet deep during the three hours nearest the 

 hour of high tide. 



But the Governor, with consent of the Council, may 

 arbitrarily fix the tidal bounds of streams upon recom- 

 mendation of the Commissioners of inland fisheries. He 

 may also prohibit fishing for a period not exceeding five 

 years, except in an inclosed, unnavigable stream. 



Bearing in mind that, except so far as modified by the 

 law of Massachusetts, the common law is in force, our 

 correspondent should have no difficulty in answering his 

 inquiry, or any similar question which may arise. It is 

 still true that the owner of land bordering on a brook 

 owns to the center line of the water. Cultivated fish, by 

 statute, are the property of the person maintaining them, 

 and without his consent, it is illegal for any person to 

 take them, whether he fish from a highway bridge or his 

 own boat. 



But in Massachusetts the right to control and regulate 

 fisheries to a considerable extent, has always been granted 

 to towns and cities. And it would be well for our cor- 

 respondent to inform himself what control has been as- 

 sumed or regulations made under this power by the 

 town where the water in question is situated, and also 

 investigate the records and rules of the Fish Commis- 

 sioners. Should he desire to read more fully the author- 

 ities from which we have quoted, they are cited below: 



3 Kent's Com., 412-416: Angell on Watercourses, §01-89; 

 Smith v. Miller, 5 Mason, 191: "Waters v. Lilley, 4 Pick 

 147; Vinton v. Welsh, 9 Pick. 91 ; Commonwealth v. Tif- 

 fany, 119 Mass. 304; Proctor v. Wells, 103 Mass. 316: Pub- 

 lic Statutes of Mass., Chap. 90. 



Is it not about time to jail some of the inhuman brutes 

 who advertise themselves by throwing dogs into Niagara 

 Eiver ? Two dogs are now dragging out a miserable exist- 

 ence and gradually starving to death, on rocks where 

 they managed to scramble, below the suspension bridge. 

 If there be a society for the prevention of cruelty to 

 animals in that part of the country it would do well to 

 put an end to this practice, if not for the sake of the hap- 

 less dogs at least for the good repute of the region. 



The Story of the Connecticut Sportsman who 

 prosecuted a butcher for displaying partridges out of 

 season, and when the case came to court discovered that 

 they were stuffed birds hung up to play a game on him , 

 has been brought out for its usual round of the press. It 

 starts this time as a telegram from Waterbury to the 

 New York Sun. It will go like the man with the patent 

 cork leg for many years to come. 



The topic of the comparative merits of the flesh of 

 wild game, as prepared in camp, is an enticing one; and 

 now that a Boston correspondent has had his say, it is to 

 be hoped that others may give their gustatory tastes and 

 preferences. 



AN OUTING IN LAKE COUNTY. 



EAST OAKLAND, California.— For several months in 

 the early part of the year I had derived much pleas- 

 ure from a proposed trip i n July to Lake county. A 11 the 

 minute details had been worked up and the programme 

 fOr the two weeks' vacation mapped out time and again, 

 and discussed with a zest known only to those whose 

 hearts during their moments of relaxation turn to nature 

 for rest as unerringly as the needle to the pole. But 

 like the course of true love it is seldom that undertakings 

 of this description are carried out exactly as originally 

 intended. The companions that I had selected and who 

 had entered into the scheme with great enthusiasm while 

 it was yet but a remote contingency began to weaken as 

 the time drew near, and on the morning of the 9th, the 

 day before our intended departure, the last one I had 

 counted on showed the white feather, leaving me still 

 determined, but with all my well digested plans'irretriev- 

 ably shattered. 



Ilaying occasion during the day to visit the office of 

 my friend B., I casually mentioned the dilemma I was 

 in, deploring at the same time the probable necessity of 

 going alone. B.'s business cares were of such a nature 

 that I had not dreamed of his being able to leave the city 

 longer than a day or two at a time, although I knew him 

 to be a fine shot and an enthusiastic sportsman. My sur- 

 prise and pleasure may therefore be imagined when he 

 quietly remarked: "Go ahead, old fellow, and I will join 

 you in Lockport on Thursday evening, armed and equipped 

 as the law directs." 



Eight o'clock the next morning found me on the ferry- 

 boat bound for Tiburon, where I took the N. P. E. E. for 

 Cloverdale, the nearest station to Clear Lake. The road 

 followed for many miles the beautiful Russian Eiver 

 valley, with its vast tracts of vineyard and orchard under 

 such perfect cultivation, that at times, for long distances, 

 we seemed to be passing through a garden, until noon, 

 when we arrived at Cloverdale, where we took dinner and 

 prepared for a forty miles stage ride over the mountains. 

 This method of travel is almost always tedious to one ac- 

 customed to the speed and comfort of a railway, still, in 

 spite of the dust and heavy grades we managed to get 

 considerable enjoyment out of it. The stage was well 

 filled, but not uncomfortably so, and the passengers being 

 for the most part pleasure seekers were in high spirits, 

 and endeavored to be as sociable as possible. The scenery 

 was picturesque, and the road, which wound for the most 

 part up a long canon through which ran a sparkling 

 tributary of the Eussian Eiver, was as good as could be 

 exi ected in a section so rugged. 



Sometimes the clear murmuring waters of the stream 

 were so close beneath us that we could see the trout dart- 

 ing away at our approach, and at others, although two or 

 three hundred feet above, we could almost have" jumped 

 into it from the top of the stage. The possibilities sug- 

 gested by a glance into the depths below us were of a 

 decidedly unpleasant character, but the knowledge that 

 the six horses drawing us had not only been carefully 

 selected, but were familiar with every foot of the road, 

 and that the drivers were among the most experienced 

 and skillfid in the State, did much to reassure us. Game, 

 as might be expected, did not seem to be particularly 

 plentiful in the immediate vicinity of the road, although 

 on account of its extreme ruggedness it was destitute of 

 dwellings, except at the relay stations. A few quail, 

 rabbits and squirrels were seen, and late in the afternoon 

 two deer ran up one of the ridges a short distance ahead , 

 giving us a fine view of them before they disappeared in 

 the brush. Timber of any great size was decidedly scarce, 

 except low down in the canon, and it did not appear that 

 there had ever been much on the mountainside, which 

 was mostly covered with manzinita, chemisal and buck- 

 eye brush from three to ten feet high. 



Twenty-five miles out brought us to "Tylers," where 

 we changed horses, got some sweet milk — unadulterated 

 — and a glimpse of a narrow valley where about fifty 

 acres were in grass and grain, being the first land not set 

 on edge we had seen since leaving Cloverdale. A large 

 two story white house with good barns and fences gave 

 evidence of thrift and prosperity, as Tyler's, besides 

 being a stage station, was also the half-way house for the 

 freighters between Cloverdale and the Clear Lake settle- 

 ments. On one of the buildings I noticed at least a score 

 of bucks' heads nailed to the wall, ranging all the way 

 from a spike to a five-pointer; and a fine, trouty-looking 

 stream just below the house seemed to indicate that if 

 one were looking for good hunting and fishing he would 

 be as likely to find it there as anywhere. 



About sunset we descended into Lake Valley, but it 

 was after 9 o'clock when we rolled into Lakeport and 

 were dumped out upon the veranda of the Mound Cot- 

 tage Hotel, covered with dust, tired and hungry. A 

 good supper and a refreshing night's sleep in one of the 

 little cottages near the mam building (and from which 

 the hotel derives its name), placed the writer in good 

 condition again, and early the next morning he sallied 

 forth to take in the surroundings. I had never visited 

 Lakeport before, but from the frequent descriptions, both 

 heard and read, took it for granted that I knew all about 

 it before I started, and of course found everything dif- 

 ferent from what had been expected. The imaginary 

 lake had waters of a cerulean hue, was of great depth 

 and was surrounded on all sides by mountains heavily 

 timbered, and pitching steeplj' into the lake or down to a 

 narrow, pebbly or sandy beach, something, for example, as 

 nearly like Tahoe as possible. The real lake was found to 

 be quite as long as Tahoe and perhaps nearly as wide in 

 places, but here the resemblance began and ended. Its 

 waters were hardly as clear as those of the average mill 

 pond, and the mountains in the few places where they 

 did reach the lake were destitute of timber, and covered 

 for the most part with scrubby chapparal. Its extreme 

 depth was said to be about one hundred feet, and the 

 shores for several miles on either side of the town sloped 

 gently off into broad shallows with a mud bottom mar- 

 gined with a fringe of tules varying in width from a few 

 feet to a hundred or more yards. But for all that, the 

 panorama spread out before us as we sat upon the ver- 

 anda that lovely morning was full of quiet beauty. In 

 front a lake, its board expanse unvexeel by a single rip- 

 ple, glistened like an immense mirror in the morning- 

 sun, not a sail or boat of any description could be seen | 

 upon its placid bosom; here and there a gull or loon ' 



with a great blue heron slowly winging his way to the 

 further shore, and nothing more. To the left, in a little 

 grove just outside the line of tules, the white tents and 

 wagon covers of a party of campers were visible, the 

 blue smoke from their camp-fires climbing lazily up 

 through the trees as they prepared the morning meal. 

 To the right the town just awakening with activity, and 

 beyond small farms Avith charming cottage homes nest- 

 ling amid groves of fruit and forest trees, and flanked 

 by fields of yellow grain or green alfalfa, rolled away for 

 miles to the bush-clad hills. 



Just across the lake to the south, and eight or ten miles 

 away with the Avhole of one side in view, lay Uncle Sam, 

 the highest peak in the county and the refuge of its last 

 elk. A special interest, sad though it usually be, attaches 

 itself to the last lone survivor of a vanishing race; and 

 although the elk are not yet quite extinct throughout the 

 State, a few, I believe, being still left in the extreme 

 northern counties, a brief mention of this one may not be 

 out of place. For two or three years after all the rest 

 had been killed or driven away, this one, a mighty bull, 

 still lingered in the fastness of old Uncle Sam, and'by his 

 wonderful sagacity baffled the most untiring hunters, 

 until they finally gave up all hope of capturing him 

 except by chance. One bright moonlight night a rancher 

 living near by was watching a salt lick on the side of the 

 mountain for deer, when the elk. put in an appearance; 

 he became suspicious before reaching the lick and turned 

 toward the bush again, but in so doing exposed his 

 shoulders to a deadly shot, which the rancher was not 

 slow to avail himself of. Mortally wounded the great 

 brute managed to escape, and although a diligent search 

 for him was made, he was not found until late in the fall, 

 when a bush fire that laid bare the mountainside revealed 

 the mouldering remains of the forest king. 



Having two days at my disposal before B. would arrive, 

 I determined to devote a portion to fishing in the lake, 

 which was said to abound with trout, pike, perch, carp 

 and catfish, the three first indigenous; the others, placed 

 there a few years ago, had increased with wonderful 

 rapidity. 



At the end of one of the streets, whose terminus was 

 the lake shore, lay a barge with a small cabin upon it, oc- 

 cupied by a fat old ex-sea captain named Bundy, who 

 kept a number of boats for hire; and wending my way 

 there I engaged a light Whitehall boat for the afternoon. 

 A small barefooted boy, who seemed to be the old cap- 

 tain's major domo, after surveying my "layout" of spoons 

 and flies for awhile in silence, confidentially informed me 

 "them things was no account there" except in the spring, 

 and suggested angleworms as a much mere killing bait. 

 Now, the piscatorial lore of the small boy, especially 

 when native born, has always commanded my most pro- 

 found respect, and a small bribe soon put me in posses- 

 ion of a yeast-powder box half full of the coveted worms; 

 and a few moments later I was skimming over the waves 

 before a vigorous white ash breeze with a troll over the 

 stern. A pull of two miles along the shore not being 

 productive of a single bite. I jointed my rod and tried 

 the fly; but cast after cast bringing nothing to the sur- 

 face, I then had recourse to the worms, which were faith- 

 fully used in every way and at every depth until nearly 

 sunset, when thoroughly discouraged, I started to return 

 without a single fish. Largo carp had frequently broken 

 water near the boat during the afternoon, and on my 

 way in f passed an Indian in a dugout who tried to sell 

 mo three or four fine ones that he had gigged, but being 

 out for sport only I declined the investment. 



The little major domo was waiting for me when L 

 reached the barge, and observing my disappointed 

 expression remarked by way of consolation that there 

 would be fine catfishing in that vicinity about dusk. 

 What a fall was there, my countrymen! After a journey 

 of 150 miles to drop from lake trout to mudcats. After 

 supper I strolled down to the lake shore to enjoy a 

 cigar in the cool of the evening, when I had an oppor- 

 tunity to verify the boy's statement. A bare-legged 

 youth of about the same age as the major domo was 

 standing upon a half submerged scow with a rig which 

 as well as I could make out in the t wilight consisted of a 

 toad tied to the end of a string, and lie was landing cat- 

 ties 10 to 14in. long every five minutes. From the surface 

 Of the lake that evening arose myriads of little white 

 midges about the size of "no-see-ums," almost obscuring 

 the vision, but troublesome only on account of their pro- 

 digious numbers, which filled the eyes, ears and mouth; 

 aud swarmed into the town so thickly that in some cases 

 they extinguished the lights in the houses. They were 

 evidently very short lived, however, and with the slight- 

 est breeze disappeared as if by magic. 



Being satisfied by this time that there was no fishing in 

 the lake in July worthy of the name, I put up my tackle, 

 and the next morning took a ride out through an exceed- 

 ingly fertile section under a high state of cultivation, 

 called Scott's Valley, and then spent the remainder of the 

 day making arrangements for our trip into the moun- 

 tains. Learning from the residents that although deer 

 were quite plenty it was almost useless to hunt them at 

 that season without dogs, as they were lymg during the 

 day in the thick brush and feed "mostly at night, I made 

 immediate inquiries and was fortunate enough to secure 

 the services of a guide named Frank Rippey, who pos- 

 sessed all the requisites necessary to make the trip both 

 pleasant and successful. He knew the country perfectly, 

 and owned an excellent deer dog and two horses that 

 had been accustomed to packing in the mountains for 

 years. 



B. arrived that evening on the stage, and early the 

 next morning we purchased such supplies as it' was 

 deemed necessary to take with us — a side of bacon, some 

 coffee, sugar, potatoes, salt, pepper, etc., with tinware 

 and cutlery for the mess box. Owf g to the short notice 

 he had received, Eippey was unable to arrange matters 

 for so long an absence from home before afternoon, and 

 it was nearly 3 o'clock before he drove up in a light wagon 

 to the outfitting store where Ave awaited him. Blankets, 

 provisions, dogs and guns were hastily tumbled in, and 

 in less than half an hour later we were out of town on 

 our way to the hills. 



Our destination was Tieta Creek, about eight miles 

 from Lakeport, where it was expected good hunting and 

 some trout would be found. A six-mile drive brought us 

 to the nearest point approached by the road, and driving 

 the wagon into the brash, Ave packed the entire load 

 except dogs and guns, upon the horses and began to climb 

 the steep mountainside that formed the divide betAveen 

 us and the creek. The rise was about 1,000ft.. the brush 



